I’m a big fan of doing it yourself. A lot of people are, you’d be surprised… So here’s a cool way to get that point-to-point hand-wired amp that you’ve always wanted at a fraction of the price. All you had to do is provide the labor yourself. That and have some basic soldering tools and you could be the next Mike Zaite.

Mod Kits DIY makes do-it-yourself kits for building your own amplifier and effects pedals as well as a providing kits to mod existing amplifiers. The kit that piqued our interest was the MOD 101 guitar amp kit. This amp kit includes all of the electronic components, vacuum tubes, pre-drilled steel chassis, box and wire needed to assemble the amp. You just need to bring a solder, tools and skills.

The amp includes a matched pair of 6L6GCs and EL34s giving you two good options for voicing the power stage – and getting a chance to learn to bias amp when you decide to swap power tubes. As an added bonus it comes with instructions “detailing 32 circuit variations including: Tone Stack Mod, Input Voltage Divider Mod, Negative Feedback Mod, Bypass Cap Mod & Power Tube Mod.”

MOD 101 Tube Amp Kit

We think this is a totally doable project even for those of us just starting out in the DIY gear space. Last year we surprised ourselves when we put together a BYOC EVS Fuzz pedal kit with just some basic tools and soldering iron. With the MOD 101 amp you get online tech support over email and you can even request a sample set of instructions to see what you’re getting into. It seems like a great way to get started on learning how to build and mod amplifiers.